Taking you back to the sights, sounds, and the people of the 20th Century

April 15: Cinema

60 years ago in UK cinemas, from Hammer Films, The Camp on Blood Island (1968)

JAP WAR CRIMES EXPOSED!

The Camp on Blood Island is a British World War II film starring Carl Möhner, André Morell, Edward Underdown and Walter Fitzgerald. Set in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in British Malaya the film deals with the brutal, sadistic treatment of Allied prisoners by their captors. On its release, the film was promoted with a quote from Lord Russell of Liverpool, “We may forgive, but we must never forget”, and an image of a Japanese soldier wielding a samurai sword.

From its powerful opening sequence of a man being forced to dig his own grave before being shot dead, an intertitle follows, stating “this is not just a story – it is based on brutal truth”, The Camp on Blood Island is noted for a depiction of human cruelty and brutality which was unusually graphic for a film of its time. It received some contemporary allegations of going beyond the bounds of the acceptable and necessary into gratuitous sensationalism.